House GOP banking on Plan C

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is thinking about taking some of his members to see the new thriller “Prisoners” this weekend.

But the California Republican, along with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), might feel like the ones getting locked up after their attempt to tie a one-year debt-ceiling hike to a laundry list of popular conservative policies — including a delay of Obamacare — fell flat Thursday, victim to continuing skepticism over the leadership’s strategy within GOP ranks

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Debt ceiling: By the numbers

Even when they hurled everything at the wall, it wasn’t enough for House Republicans.

Boehner and his team have now cycled through three fiscal strategies in about as many weeks, as rank-and-file Republicans jump from one approach to another in a so-far losing effort to emerge victorious from a budget showdown with President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Now it’s on to “Plan C,” or whatever Republicans call this third iteration of government funding-debt ceiling strategy.

The result could be a government shutdown in just a few days on Oct. 1 if the House and Senate can’t agree on a government funding bill.

At this point, it’s difficult to conclusively determine where all the House GOP’s maneuvering and false starts will end. In one sense, the developments might help Congress avoid a government shutdown. Most House Republicans now seem to recognize that they will likely have to swallow a funding resolution that leaves Obamacare intact.

Yet, the ups-and-downs also dramatically increase the stakes in the debt-ceiling fight. The borrowing cap must be raised by Oct. 17, or the nation will default on its debts.

The ever-shifting House GOP strategy started with passing the so-called “Cantor Plan,” which funded the government, defunded Obamacare, but allowed the Senate to revise a continuing resolution or CR without House approval. Conservative Republicans could get their vote on Obamacare without the threat of a government shutdown. Leadership planned to use the debt ceiling as a backstop — whatever Republicans couldn’t achieve on a CR, they hoped they could accomplish when the nation reached its borrowing limit in mid-October.

That plan, which even Democrats privately called clever, was scrapped in the face of conservative opposition.

Plan B involved Boehner and his top lieutenants accelerating action on the debt-ceiling package, taking up the measure before the government-funding bill to try to show just how committed Republicans were to scuttling Obamacare.

And on Thursday, that plan was set aside too in the face of unyielding GOP opposition.

As McCarthy’s deputy whips shuffled around the House floor counting potential votes, Republicans said the leadership’s debt ceiling plan — which the White House and Democratic Senate already announced they‘d reject — might not be enough. Senior GOP lawmakers and aides admitted they didn’t have the votes to move ahead with a tentative Saturday vote on the debt package.

A risky Plan C is about to unfold.

Hardline conservatives, wary about their own leadership, want to see how the fight over the CR plays out before voting on a debt-ceiling package. In this scenario, unified Democratic opposition forces Republicans to swallow a government funding bill they deem less-than-satisfactory, House Republicans will certainly counter by increasing their demands for reform when it comes to the debt-ceiling legislation.

For the moment, House Republicans will take up the Senate-passed CR — which will arrive in the House at some point Friday — amend it, and send it back across the Capitol. They will likely attach language to prohibit a federal payments for health care for members of Congress and their staff. Also under under consideration are provisions to delay Obamacare’s individual mandate for a year or repeal the medical device tax, which was part of the Affordable Care Act.